A 2018 Richard F. Gold Career Grant recipient and 2016 National Semi-Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, bass-baritone Christian Pursell is currently an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera.

Winner of theSullivan Foundation's prestigious Theodor Uppman Award, Mr. Pursell's 2017 season saw debuts at both Houston Grand Opera and the Vienna State Opera, and a critically acclaimed performance of Dandini in La Cenerentola with the Merola Opera Program. That same year he was named recipient of a Sara Tucker Study Grant and was Second Award winner of the Jensen Foundation Competition.

Recent engagements include Pandolfe in Cendrillon, Harašta in The Cunning Little Vixen, Marcello in La Bohème, Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore, Walter Raleigh in Roberto Devereux, Senator Potter's Assistant/Priest in Fellow Travelers, and Pilate in a staged production of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.

Mr. Pursell's upcoming engagements include the Jailer in Tosca, Count Lamoral in Arabella, and the Angel Quartet in It's a Wonderful Life at San Francisco Opera, Samuel/Doeg in Handel's Saul with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and Handel’s Messiah with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.